The period of the Judges is linked to the period of the Kingdom by the
prophet Samuel, who anointed both Saul and David as kings. Not only was
Samuel himself a prophet, but his forebears also has been prophets, (1)
and both his parents, Elkanah and Hannah, were endowed with the gift of
prophecy. (2) Aside from this gift, Elkanah possessed extraordinary
virtue. He was a second Abraham, the only pious man of his generation,
who saved the world from destruction when God, made wroth by the
idolatry of Micah, was on the point of annihilating it utterly. (3) His
chief merit was that he stimulated the people by his example to go on
pilgrimages to Shiloh, the spiritual centre of the nation. Accompanied
by his whole household, including kinsmen, he was in the habit of
making the three prescribed pilgrimages annually, and though he was a
man of only moderate means, (4) his retinue was equipped with great
magnificence. In all the towns through which it passed, the procession
caused commotion. The lookers-on invariably inquired into the reason of
the rare spectacle, and Elkanah told them: "We are going to the house
of the Lord at Shiloh, for thence come forth the law. Why should you
not join us?" Such gentle, persuasive words did not fail of taking
effect. In the first year five households undertook the pilgrimage, the
next year ten, and so on until the whole town followed his example.
Elkanah chose a new route every year. Thus he touched at many towns,
and their inhabitants were led to do a pious deed. (5)
In spite of his God-fearing ways, Elkanah's domestic life was not
perfectly happy. He had been married ten years, and his union with
Hannah had not been blessed with offspring. (6) The love he bore his
wife compensated him for his childlessness, but Hannah herself insisted
upon his taking a second wife. Peninnah embraced every opportunity of
vexing Hannah. In the morning her derisive greeting to Hannah would be:
"Dost thou not mean to rise and wash thy children, and send them to
school?" (7) Such jeers were to keep Hannah mindful of her
childlessness. Perhaps Peninnah's intentions were laudable: she may
have wanted to bring Hannah to the point of praying to God for
children. (8) However it may have been forced from her, Hannah's
petition for a son was fervent and devout. She entreats God: "Lord of
the world! Hast Thou created aught in vain? Our eyes Thou hast destined
for sight, our ears for hearing, our mouth for speech, our nose to
smell therewith, our hands for work. Didst Thou not create these
breasts above my heart to give suck to a babe? (9) O grant me a son,
that he may draw nourishment therefrom. Lord, Thou reignest over all
beings, the mortal and the heavenly beings. The heavenly beings neither
eat nor drink, they do not propagate themselves, nor do they die, but
they live forever. Mortal man eats, drinks, propagates his kind and
dies. If, now, I am of the heavenly beings, let me live forever. But if
I belong to mortal mankind, let me do my part in establishing the
race." (10)
Eli the high priest, who at first misinterpreted Hannah's long prayer,
dismissed her with the blessing: "May the son to be born unto thee
acquire great knowledge in the law." (11) Hannah left the sanctuary,
and at once her grief-furrowed countenance changes. She felt beyond a
doubt that the blessing of Eli would be fulfilled. (12)